Recent activity

After 2 years of not posting anything on this blog, I decided today to move the content from my personal website to this blog. Not exactly formated pretty but it serves a purpose for me. I'm going to delete that website and this gives me a quick and easy backup of the content I had on there.

24 Hours Support Groups

About ten years ago, I got into a newsgroup called
24hoursupport.helpdesk. I found a
pretty good bunch of people there that provided support to new users that
"stumbled" into the group. Lot's of people come and go from this group,
both those that ask and those that answer questions. There is however, a core of
regulars that along with the visitors are able to provide some pretty good computer support
for a wide variety of problems. If you are having trouble finding answers to some of
your questions, come and visit us in the newsgroup. You can learn more about this
group by visiting the web site at http://www.24hrsupport.org/
or http://24hrsupport.netfirms.com/
This newsgroup is not available on all servers. Click
here to view this newsgroup on Google
Newsgroups.

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Of course some folks just do not
want to bother with using newsgroups. One of the problems with newsgroups is the
flame wars that occasionally break out and take everyone away from the topic of the group.
There are also those that do not believe there is a topic in the newsgroup and
post anything they want.
This drove me into looking for an alternative and that is how
the 24hoursupport mailing list was born. I started this list at onelist.com
in 1998 and it got bought out by egroups.com in 1999 and then got absorbed into
Yahoo.com in 2000.
It has grown to over 600 members
with no promotion other then a listing at the Yahoo site.

In April
of 2002 I saw greener pastures at Freelists.org and moved the list there.
It did not work well for some of our subscribers. I seriously misjudged the popularity of the web
interface and ease of use at Yahoo. In October of 2002 I re-activated the Yahoo
list to accommodate the users that found Freelists a little confusing. Ron
Allen graciously accepted ownership and management of the Freelists group.
Read more about the Freelists Group by clicking here.

You may subscribe to either list or both. The Yahoo list seems to be
"easier" to use and has a nice web interface, but the options are set
in such a way that it is possible for an occasional off topic post to get
through. Freelists, on the other hand, is more structured and has much
less chance of inappropriate posts getting through. Many people choose to
subscribe to both lists. These are outstanding
mailing lists. The members of these lists provide some pretty high quality answers to
questions. As the list has grown, Ron and I have made several members of the lists
moderators.
The purpose of the moderator's are to rid the groups of any disruptive people who
slip in and try to cause any problems. A link to the message
archive's are included on this page below.

Links for mailing list messages

Read
Message Archives at Yahoo!

Read
Message Archives at Freelists

RSS
Feed for 24hrsupporthelpdesk (Want to know what this is? Click
Here)

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Subscribe to 24hrsupporthelpdesk
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Firewall Basics

To understand firewalls, you should understand how the basic communication with other computers/servers on the internet work. When you connect to the Internet and use various software like Internet Explorer, Netscape, Outlook and other email applications, lots of information is being transmitted to and from your PC over a single connection. How does this information coming into your pc know to go to your email software for email and to your web browser for web site display? How is an outgoing message distinguished from an incoming message? Basically, it is done through standard ports. A port is a doorway into and out of your PC and TCPIP can direct the information to a specified port. Your TCPIP address is the location of your computer on the Internet and the port number is the specific door to use at this address.
Ports are numbered and there are over 6000 available ports to address. These port numbers are only effective when your PC and the one you are connecting to are both attempting to use the same port number. If they are not they can not communicate with each other. So, there had to be some sort of advance agreement on what applications will use what port number. For example, there was an agreement when the World Wide Web was being developed that all browsers will use port 80. That allows web sites to set their web servers to communicate it's hosted websites on port 80 understanding that Microsoft, Netscape and all other brands of browsers would program their software to accept and transmit traffic on the same port 80. So, anything that comes in to your computer on this port is directed to your web browser and allows the website to be displayed on your PC.
The developer's of email agreed to set port 110 as the standard port for incoming pop3 email and outgoing smtp email uses port 25. By agreeing on these port numbers, all email software developers program their software to use these ports and allows your software to communicate properly with incoming and outgoing mail servers to make your email work. In a nutshell, the ports open the doors (establish the paths) of communication between two computers. TCPIP uses the open door to send it's packets of information between to two pieces of software that wish to talk with each other.
By default, when you connect to the Internet all of these 6000 plus doors are open and allow free access to your PC. If you think about this you can see that this is a pretty scary thought since not everyone that connects to the Internet has good intentions. This allows a dishonest computer programmer the ability to program a server type application on his pc to communicate on any of the 6000 plus ports and plant a hidden application on your pc to use the same port number and then send whatever instructions he wants to your pc for execution. This is the basic premise of what you hear are "Trojans".
Now, you might ask, "I'm one of millions of PC's on the Internet. Why would someone want to attack me? I have nothing of value to offer." Well, remember, with the open door, they can come in and plant a little webserver on your PC and you will never know it. By use of the hidden file attribute they can copy images to your computer and through the use of re-directs your PC can become a popular porn site on the Internet and you would never realize it is happening.
Enough of the scare tactics, let's do something simple about this and slam the doors shut. First, let's see how vulnerable you are right now. Go to the Shields Up site and check your present security. When you get there, click the "Proceed" button and that will take you to the greetings page. After reviewing the information look at the blue box on the page and you should see a series of silver buttons labled File Sharing, Common Ports, and all Service Ports among a few others. Be sure and check each of those three buttons and review the information that is returned. This will give you a clear indication of how secure your PC is on the Internet.
A firewall is a piece of software that runs on your PC and allows you to close any open port that you wish to close. Normally by default it closes all but the standard ports used to communicate to web browsers and email clients. Firewalls can be configured many different ways. You can allow certain ports to let traffic in but not let it out on certain ports. You can open it both ways or block it both ways.
Firewalls can be obtained through several sources. Many of the major Anti-Virus software companies like Norton, McAfee and Trend are building firewalls into their software and marketing them as "Internet Security Suites". These are quite good and offer a total package that covers most of the other topics I will mention such as Virus, Spyware and Spam control. If you do not have one of these suites and need a firewall for your PC you can get a very good free one at Zonelabs.com.

Panda Web Parts Test

Panda Anti-Virus is but one of
the many good AV programs on the market to help prevent viruses from
damaging your system. The main point of this page is to make sure
you have something installed for AV software. No one should be
running a PC connected to the Internet without basic security in place
to prevent infection as well as prevent you from infecting others.
I chose to list Panda here because they are gracious enough to provide
several tools that I can include on this page to assist you in
controlling this. It is not an endorsement of Panda Software
although I have read good reports on it and those that use it are quite
happy with it. Personally I use Trend Micro's new Internet
Security Software. That is also not an endorsement of Trend.
It simply means that my company provides for me for free so why not use
it. In any case, you can make use of the tools below. Don't
miss the "Active Scan" tool if you presently have no
Anti-Virus software installed.

Test

Testing RSS Feed

RSS Newsreaders

Here are some links to some of the more popular newsreaders. I will mention the ones I have used, but keep in mind that I am not a seasoned veteran with this technology. What I like and what is useful and easy for you are likely very different. My suggestion is to download and install several of them and take them for a cruise.
FeedReader
http://www.feedreader.com/
Download FeedReader
http://sourceforge.net/projects/feedreader/
SharpReader
http://www.hutteman.com/weblog/2003/04/06-56.html
Download SharpReader
http://www.sharpreader.net/
NewsDesk
http://www.wildgrape.net/
AmphetaDesk
http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/
FeedDemon
http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/index.asp
Awasu
http://awasu.com/
In case these are not enough
http://www.hebig.org/blogs/archives/main/000877.php

RSS Feeds

As confusing as all of this may sound, it is really pretty simple once you master the technique of adding your feeds to your newsreader. Many of the newsreaders have pre-configured feeds which you may be satisfied with using, but the real power of these newsreaders is the ability to customize it to specific feeds that you want to keep up on.
When finding a feed to add, your objective is to get to a web page that displays the RSS programming code. You then click in the address line of your browser and copy the URL and paste it into the "new channel" window of your newsreader. To demonstrate, let's start with the 24hrsupport helpdesk feed as an example. Click Here. A new window opens up and display's what looks like a bunch of HTML code. That's just what we want. Now click in the address line, right click and "copy" the link to your clipboard. Go to your newsreader and click on whatever you see to add a new feed. In the new feed window you should see a field for the URL of the feed. Right click in that field and paste. Proceed through with adding the new feed. You should end up with a new channel that brings up the last 15 messages posted to our group. It is possible to add feeds to any of the Yahoo groups you might be subscribed to.
That's pretty much it. You can have some fun figuring out some of the rest of the newsreader features on your own. Since I'm no expert at this we can all learn together. In fact, I'm still trying to find a weather feed that will let me check forecasts by zip code. If any of you come across something like this please let me know.
For some decent feeds go to http://news.yahoo.com/rss and look over Yahoos RSS feeds. Click on the Orange XML button to get the page of code to obtain the URL to subscribe to the feed in your newsreader.
You can get several feeds from Lockergnome at http://rss.lockergnome.com/ by clicking on any of the Orange XML buttons on this page.
Lastly, if that is not enough, you can go to http://radio.xmlstoragesystem.com/rcsPublic/rssHotlist and look at the top 100 RSS feeds and subscribe to any of them.

RSS Information

Every morning I learn the latest from a variety of news organizations, Weblogs, newsletters and other online information sources. But I don't use my e-mail program or go surfing from Web site to Web site.
Instead, I use a piece of software called a news aggregator or newsreader to scoop up headlines and summaries, along with links to the places where they originated.
I can do this because of a technology known as RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary (depending on who you're talking to). Either way, it's an XML standard for syndicating content via the Internet. A site with an RSS URL is offering its content in XML so programs other than Web browsers can fetch and format it.
Does anyone remember Pointcast? RSS is very similar but it only takes the good from Pointcast and eliminates the bad (large bandwidth hog), then makes it so anyone can use it.
RSS has been around for years (1999) but is still largely unknown outside the techie community. That's going to change, and soon. RSS is going to have a huge impact on the Internet. I predict that in the near future this will be as big as the web browser was over 10 years ago.
When I first started on this about 4 months ago, I did find it very confusing at first. Once I got the hang of how to add the feeds into the reader though, I really started enjoying it. Don't hesitate to use our 24hrsupporthelpdesk mailing list to post questions and/or help others that want to understand this.
If you want to create your own newspaper with just the content you want, download an RSS reader. If you are new to the Internet or still baffled by it all, take the time to try and pick up on this RSS stuff. This is a revolutionary way to use the Internet. You have an opportunity to "ride the wave" from the start instead of catching up when it really grabs hold. Trust me on this, it will.

Latest Happenings with me

Blogging has been non-existent with me over the past few months. I took a trip to New Hampshire, followed by a trip to San Diego, California, followed by a trip to Minnesota, with a trip to Chicago in a couple of weeks. I also sandwiched in some study time for a Microsoft certification test. Since desktop support is my chosen profession and I have no intentions or aspirations for anything else, I thought I should obtain the newest MS certification for MSDST. It only involves passing two tests. One is 70-271 on Supporting Windows XP Operating System and the other is 70-272 on Supporting Desktop Applications. I scheduled the test about a month ago and have been quite busy studying for it since then. I took the 70-271 today and was quite relieved to pass it on the first try. From what I've been told, that is the hardest of the two which is why I took it first. Now I'll schedule the second test and start studying for that one. Maybe I can get back to normal after that. (whatever normal is) :-)

FW: [MikesWhatsNews] MWN #779 HackFix

From Mike's newsletter comes another handy fix tool.

-----Original Message-----
From: mikeswhatsnews
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 8:30 PM
To: mikeswhatsnews@freelists.org
Subject: [MikesWhatsNews] MWN #779 HackFix

____________________________________________________________
7
IEFix free
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm
IEFix - is a general purpose repair utility for Internet Explorer which
repairs Internet Explorer by registering it's core DLL files and reinstalls
using the IE.INF file. More Information is given below. Suitable for Windows
98/ME/2000/XP systems.
++
____________________________________________________________

Trend Micro Incorporated Enters into an Agreement to Acquire InterMute

This is very good news...
Trend Micro Incorporated Enters into an Agreement to Acquire InterMute

I'm happy to see that Trend recognizes that it takes a different approach to defeat spyware versus a virus and the same cleaning techniques can not be used. This was something that has bothered me for a long time when I noticed the AV companies trying to take on spyware with there virus scan engines. Trend now sees that as evidence in their press release when they said:

"At Trend Micro, we have approached combating spyware from an antivirus perspective, as that is our area of expertise. While spyware can indeed be considered malicious code, the intent and motivation behind writers of viruses and spyware writers are different. Trend Micro already has a substantial engine, investment, and expertise in antispyware. By this acquisition, Trend Micro will be able to augment it’s current antispyware expertise and accelerating our ability to more effectively combat spyware today and future mixed threats tomorrow."

Kudo's to Trend

You receive a Stop 0x00000050 error on a blue screen

Describes how to determine whether your computer is infected with a kernel driver known spyware Rootkit/Spyware: msupd5.exe Reloadmedude.exe and how to remove it.

[via kbAlertz - Windows XP]

Your Internet Explorer home page is reset to "about:blank" and Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) unexpectedly quits in Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003

Describes a problem where your home page is reset and Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) unexpectedly quits. When this problem occurs, your computer may be affected by the TrojanSpy:Win32/Banker Trojan horse program.

[via kbAlertz - Windows XP]

Best Internet Network Information

It's been a while since I last visited the DNS Tools site and in the interim it has added a whole batch of new online inquiry tools to its already excellent collection of free services.
There are too many tools to describe but if you need to know anything about a web site, URL, email address or web routing then this is the place to go.

http://www.dnsstuff.com/

This is an interesting plugin for Outlook that helps those that feel swamped with email.

ClearContext Inbox Manager

ClearContext Inbox Manager is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook that automatically prioritizes, organizes, and color-codes the e-mail in your inbox, placing the most important e-mails from the most important senders are at the top of the inbox, ready to be dealt with immediately. Less important e-mails, such as newsletters and correspondence from low priority senders, are placed further down in the inbox and junk/spam e-mails are moved to the bottom. Additionally, ClearContext Inbox Manager automates the e-mail filing process to help you keep your entire mailbox organized. All of this is done automatically by analyzing existing e-mail -no configuration or software "training" is required. Version 1.1

[via Slipstick - Outlook and Exchange News]

This is a good substitute for those that use Plaxo's online service. This one is totally local and does not share contacts with an outside website.

Actual Contacts for Microsoft Outlook

Actual Contacts for Outlook is a Microsoft Outlook add-in for updating your address book. Select contacts and ACO will send them a message containing a form. The respondents will be able to update the data in your address book by filling out the form. The process uses only email forms and no data is stored on any other site.

[via Slipstick - Outlook and Exchange News]